Madelaine McMasters

What happens to your frame rate on your home sim? If it's substantially lower than at the sandbox, there's some non-obvious scene complexity that's bogging down your viewer. Decrease your draw distance and/or fly up to 1000+ meters and see that happens.

Those cheap LED candles that flicker like the real thing use LFSR hardware to generate pseudo-random intensities... http://hackaday.com/2014/03/02/reverse-engineering-candle-flicker-leds-again/ I learned to program FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) early in my engineering career. They are wonderful platforms upon which to design remarkably fast and compact logic systems and are now sophisticated enough that you can implement full blown computers in them, or even compile a C program into a logic design that directly implements the algorithm. Every design I did required numerous counters to sequence things. The fastest counters were Galois LFSR based. Conventional binary counters require logic that examines all bits in the counter to determine when the terminal count is reached. When only narrow gates (2-4 inputs) are available, watching wide counters results in cascading many levels of logic. This limits clock frequency, as all logic must settle before the next clock. LFSR counters can be constructed to reach arbitrary terminal counts while generally examining less than all bits in the counter. This simplifies the count logic, but still requires observing multiple bits simultaneously, again potentially requiring chains of gates. Galois counters break the count termination logic into minimal XOR gates, which are then distributed along the register chain. This results in the maximum possible count frequency. The LFSR Wiki page you linked shows a Fibonacci LFSR with cascaded XOR logic three gates deep, feeding the register chain's single input. If each XOR takes 1ns to process the function, and the register must have a stable input at the instant you clock it, and produces its output 1ns later, you can't go faster than 250MHz (4ns). In the Galois counter on that same page, you'll see that the three XOR gates are distributed across multiple input points in the register chain. With only one XOR between any register output and a register input, you can now clock the counter at 500MHz (2ns). Those were fun times.

The code talkers, and our treatment of them, is one of many bittersweet American stories. Thanks for telling it here, Ceka.

Dad never talked much about WWII, so my understanding of his involvement is sketchy. He joined the Navy in 1937, at age 16 (I learned to lie from the best ;-) and found himself in the submarine service because he could swim and hold his breath better than anybody around him, liked small spaces, and was thought unusually sane (I always thought he was nuts). He was stationed at Pearl in '41, and spent every spare moment on the other side of Maui at Kaneohe Bay Marine Air Station, learning to fly. He gravitated towards any mode of transportation that could move freely in three dimensions. Surface ships and cars did not interest him, as they were limited to two. During their early years together, Mom was the family driver. Dad was at Kaneohe the morning of Dec 7. The first air attack occured there, minutes before Pearl. Curiously, the Pearl sub base was untouched. Dad figured the Japanese were after him. Within a year or so, his ability, experience and interest in flying got him transferred "topside", where he was trained to fly the Corsair (the Japanese called it "Whistling Death"). He never said a word about his combat experience, and we never asked. I did watch Dad run his hands along a Corsair at an air show years ago. He was dead quiet for some time after that, and didn't perk up until they started playing "In The Mood" in the hanger, where he danced with Mom. I will never forget that day, nor know just what he was thinking. I learned to fly when I was 16. Dad was my first passenger. He was thrilled that I'd learned to fly, but when I offered him the wheel, he declined. He was not a man who wanted to rain whistling death on anyone, and the joy of flying was gone for him. After the war, he returned to the submarine service, doing research work. He witnessed an A-Bomb blast at Enewetok atoll, which edged him one step closer to pacifism. Home on leave in 1947, he saw a woman at a bar and before saying a word to her, told his buddy "I'm gonna marry that gal". Two weeks later, Mom proposed to him as he was heading back to Pearl. Four years after that, he came home for good, they got married and he went to engineering school on the GI Bill. Like many of his generation, he found himself in class with mates a dozen years younger chronologically and a lifetime away experientially. Mom was one of 14 from a farm in central Wisconsin. All the boys went off to war (and all came home) and my grandfather was in poor health, so the entire farm was run by the women. I suppose she was a Rosie the Milker. When the neighbor brought over his bull for stud service, Mom would clean up the lucky ladies and put big red bows on their heads. She's the one who taught me how to drive a tractor, change the oil, and on a visit to a neighboring farm, milk a cow into a cat's mouth. If you asked Dad who was the toughest person he knew, he'd say Mom. If you asked my Mom who was the gentlest person she knew, she'd say Dad. If you asked either who was the most troublesome person they know... well just never you mind. Neither of them would say there was anything remarkable about their lives. I think this was typical for those of their generation. You had a job to do, you did it, you didn't talk about it. We lost more than 400,000 in WWII (to put that in perspective, the total human cost of WWII is estimated at 50-85 million), and we didn't have the knowledge or support systems in place to handle injuries like PTSD (then called "shell shock"). I'm not sure things are any better today (VA wait list anyone?). WWII was the last of the morally clear wars. The Korean War was never a war. Vietnam did not have the support of the people at the end. More recent wars have had murkier motivations. I think the result has been that support for returning soldiers, who did not pick the wars, has decreased over time. My Dad may have been a veteran of the greatest generation, but he'd ask us all to pay equal respect to every generation of veteran, both ours and theirs. Whether a war is right or wrong, soldiers do what they were sent to do, often at an age where most of us have no idea what we're doing. But he'd also ask that we hold everyone accountable for their actions. Dad was disgusted by My Lai. Let's hope for a day when we will celebrate the last generation ever to fight a war.

Ricky40 wrote: I would like to start a discussion group centered on unexplained mysteries and phenomenon. For example, crypto zoology, Bermuda triangle, ufos, etc. If you are someone who would be interested in joining this group, please let me know as well as what meeting times would work for you. Ricky, you might not want me participating, for this reason... ;-).

Summer, Unless I misunderstand how inventory works, your suggestion doesn't make sense to me. Although my inventory hovers around 10K items, the local inventory files on my Mac are relatively small. The largest is about half a megabyte. And I believe they are aleady compressed, as my inventory cache file names are of the form xxxx.inv.gz., where .gz is recognized by my Mac as a G-Zip file. So, my largest inventory cache file is about the size of one large texture. The bulk of the storage space in a typical inventory is the text used to describe each item. The items themselves are referred to by UUID at eight bytes each. When you purchase a dress, you don't get a copy of the assets, you get the UUIDs of the dress' assets (textures, shapes, etc). The original assets stay wherever they were in the asset servers, unless needed for rez. And those assets are already compressed. Textures are stored as JPEG2000. Compressing them again via Zip or TAR would likely increase their size. (Zip a JPEG file and see what happens.) If you wanted LL to archive your inventory, what would they compress, the text description/UUID list or copies of the actual assets? If a million residents have a copy of a 1MByte texture I created, it currently takes only 1MByte of storage space for the texture (ignoring whatever replication may go on in the server farm to speed delivery), plus a handful of bytes per resident to store the text description/UUID entry in each of their inventory files. If you wished to allow all those residents to make TAR archives including the actual texture, the additional required storage space would capsize SL. This is analogous to the iTunes record library and their iTunes Match service. A substantial portion of my old record library has been recognized and matched by iTunes. It appears that I have 25GB of songs uploaded, but in actuality 20 of those 25GB are nothing more than references to tunes in their master library. They need only one copy of Fat's Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin" to satisfy more than 800 million subscribers. I certainly would like to see better inventory management tools, and I think that's really what you're asking for.

Hi Adam, Did you try logging into a different sim? It's possible the one you're attempting to visit is having issues. And because I've no other ideas to offer, I'll fall back on my default recommendation when there's some kind of connection difficulty. Nalates Urriah has put together a comprehensive list of things to do to improve the quality of your internet connection to the persnickety SL servers... http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ My gut says logging into a different sim will help, but that link is worth bookmarking anyway. Select "Type region name" from the "Start at:" box during log-in and enter "Smith" or "Pooley". Both are quiet sims and it's unlikely both would be down at the moment. If you get the same connection error, it may be time to wade through Nalates' suggestions. Good luck!

Hiya SuperMikey, This happens sometimes. Try typing Esc or Esc+Shift a few times, or type Ctrl+9. If that doesn't work, try: Advanced->Show Debug Settings, type CameraOffsetRearview, click Reset to Default Advanced->Show Debug Settings, type FocusOffsetRearview, click Reset to default If the Advanced Menu isn't showing, type Ctrl+Alt+D. Good luck!

Hi melioa, It's been at least six years since I last used a PC, but I do recall having keyboards go silly on me. Rebooting the computer often fixed it, though also recall using Device Manager to remove and re-install the keyboard driver. And, weird as it sounds, I did have a keyboard go half dead and I had to swap it to another computer, where it worked fine. I do suspect your problem is in the software somewhere. You could try another viewer (to isolate the problem to the viewer rather than Windows) or a clean reinstall of the viewer. Instructions for doing so are here... http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-Second-Life/ta-p/1375231 Pay attention to the note about preserving chat logs if that's important to you. That note points you here... http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Text-chat-and-instant-messages/ta-p/700155#Section_.3 Good luck!

Well, I guess now I know that the Alienware M17 model designation goes on for years. The M17 model that Google returned was 2009 vintage. I'm glad you got things working!

If you are walking partially buried in the floor/ground, your "Hover" shape setting may have been corrupted. You can (if your shape is modifiable) change that by editing your shape (right click on your avatar and select that from the menu). The Hover slider is at the bottom of the Body panel, and is usually set to somewhere around 50.

Hi Zak, You're here, so you've entered your SL password correctly! I think you may be entering the password for your e-mail account in the Contact Information page. Where they ask for "Current Password (for verification), they are asking for the SL account password you used to log into both the viewer and the website, not the password to your e-mail account. If you've made this mistake, you're not along. Someone described the same situation just a few days ago. The only place you should ever enter your e-mail password is into the web page or mail viewer that you use to get your e-mail. Linden Lab has no reason to know your e-mail password. They contact you via your e-mail address only, just like everybody else. Be careful! ETA: Okay, so you're entering the correct password (people could be forgiven for entering their e-mail password due to the poor wording of that SL web page). Maybe it's time to try restarting your web browser and/or PC. If you're using Internet Explorer, it might also be time to try another browser. SL web properties don't like IE very much. Good luck!

Hi transformice, I looked up the benchmarks for the Ati Mobility Radeon HD3870 graphics processor (GPU) in that laptop and it's on the low end of what's needed to run SL. It may be that the sound you are hearing is the graphics system fan running at full speed. If the GPU can't keep up, Windows will spool up the fans to keep it cool, then eventually throttle the GPU speed to keep it safe. When that happens, SL often crashes. It's taking two minutes for your GPU to reach that point after you log-in. If you were able to run SL in the past, and this is a recent development, it's possible the air channels are clogged with dust bugs (bunnies are too big to fit in a laptop) and need some cleaning. Good luck!

Hi Drew, It sounds like you're still wearing "alpha" textures from some previous mesh outfit. Look at the "Worn" tab of your inventory and remove anything that doesn't look like part of your current outfit, particularly something with "alpha" in the name. If that doesn't work, keep on stripping until your skin reappears, and make note of the things you removed that finally returned you to being visible. Good luck!

Hi Mistress Rebecca The region you were attempting to reach may have been down. That happens now and then. If that was the problem, I imagine everything is working by now. If you are still unable to teleport, come back and edit your question (via "Options" over there on the right) to give us more information, like the exact error message you get when you attempt to TP. Good luck!

That's just remarkable, Innula. Thanks for the heads up. It's fantastic to see LL putting bricks back into the customer relationship, rather than taking them out. ... offers root-beer to Landon, Ebbe and the entire LL crew. Welcome back!

Tarina Sewell wrote (approximately): Should we be concerned? Your signature suggests not! If security by obscurity works, we might breath a sigh of relief that SL is not wildly popular. But then this backwater forum has been deemed worthy of the attention of Mumbai prostitutes. I've given you two choices, take your pick! ;-).

Hi Chloe, If it's only your avi that's washed out, it could be that you've unwittingly attached a face light of some sort. Carefully check what you're wearing. Only attachments can contain lights, so removing all attachments would eliminate or confirm this as the cause of your problem. Good luck!

Hippie Bowman wrote: Good morning all! Happy Friday! Woot! I think I had a bit too much to drink at the bowling ally. Peace! Sleeping out in the open isn't a good idea, Hippie... Happy Friday, Kids!!!

Phil Deakins wrote: Theresa Tennyson wrote: Bree Giffen wrote: Will god still exist after the sun goes supernova and burns the Earth to a cinder? That entirely depends on the definition of God, doesn't it? You remind me of people who told the minister at the Unitarian-Universalist church I attended that they don't believe in God - he said in reply, "Tell me about the God you don't believe in. I probably don't believe in that God either." Now that minister came up with a *really* good reply. I like it a lot. I like that response too. I used to take my telescope to the local Unitarian Universalist Church on evenings when they had little house concerts. I'd offer free views of whatever was up after the show. I had interesting chats with the minister, who was amused by the juxtaposition of my agnosticism with my way of talking about the Universe. Mom is now a member of the congregation because they have killer pot-luck dinners and don't talk scary.

Phil Deakins wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Aeth, I agree about the limitations of language in describing things. We often learn by analogy, and it's terribly important to pick the right ones when trying to describe something new. In the case of quantum mechanics, analogy is particularly perilous. When nature reveals something wholly unexpected, words can fail us. In a sense, I'll agree with Qie's claim that science is limited by our imaginations. When I was little, my Dad would say things to me like "You can't outsmart bacteria." He'd then go on to explain that they outnumbered me by an astronomical factor, and that they performed experiments through genetic mutation far faster than I could. They can reproduce every six hours, it takes us about 20 years. Those numbers are stacked against us. We do, however, have a marvelous intellect, and the ability to record our history and pass what we've learned ahead to the future generations, outside of our genetics. And we're able to communicate and cooperate with each other at a level far above that of other creatures. So, though some numbers are stacked against us, we've got some pretty signficant numbers of our own. The rate of advancement of bacteria probably hasn't changed much over time. They experiment (mutate) at about the same rate as always. Their ability to "imagine" (mutate) hasn't changed. But our rate of advancement is increasing, even though our reproduction cycle is still 20 years long. It's increasing because our tools, both for collaboration and exploration, are improving. Any one of us is limited in our ability to imagine by any number of factors, natural and nurtural. But, our ability to share ideas can remove barriers to, or spur imaginaton. It is not hard for you to imagine Russell's teapot, but it is for some. By sharing ideas, we benefit from Metcalf's Law. I share your sense of awe and wonder, and there was a time I'd have accepted a characterization of that as "spiritual", though certainly not religious. No more. I'm now happy to think of myself simply as... curious. ETA: Hidden in my response is a purposeful comingling of imagination with mutation. Nature is often credited with being imaginative. Why is that? Well, if you try enough random experiments and keep only those which work (natural selection), you can end up with something that appears planned. We've plenty of evidence to show that no planning was involved, but it takes a bit of imagination to accept the evidence. ;-). No no no no no, Maddy. I cannot agree with that. No way. You are way off. Not even close. I know I risk being burned at the stake for saying this, but the error is so large that I'm willing to chance it. The human reproduction cycle is way less than 20 years. You are probably mistaking it for the westernised desired human reproduction cycle Yeah, I know it's less, and I've got (lots of!) relatives to prove it. Dad was 50 and Mom was 43 when I was born. I think you can blame them both for slowing the progress of humanity. And to make matters worse, after waiting so damned long, they had me! And there was another error. I should have said "no planning was needed" rather than "no planning was involved". You can't prove a negative like "planning wasn't involved". By proving that chance is sufficient, you can prove that planning wasn't needed. There is a difference.

Hi sidswayin, You can cross between sims in vehicles so long as the sim you are attempting to enter allows "object entry". Not all sims do. The fastest way to find out if a sim allows it it to try to enter it in your boat ;-). The Blake Sea is (I think) the largest freely sailable area in Second Life. Don't drown!

Aeth, I agree about the limitations of language in describing things. We often learn by analogy, and it's terribly important to pick the right ones when trying to describe something new. In the case of quantum mechanics, analogy is particularly perilous. When nature reveals something wholly unexpected, words can fail us. In a sense, I'll agree with Qie's claim that science is limited by our imaginations. When I was little, my Dad would say things to me like "You can't outsmart bacteria." He'd then go on to explain that they outnumbered me by an astronomical factor, and that they performed experiments through genetic mutation far faster than I could. They can reproduce every six hours, it takes us about 20 years. Those numbers are stacked against us. We do, however, have a marvelous intellect, and the ability to record our history and pass what we've learned ahead to the future generations, outside of our genetics. And we're able to communicate and cooperate with each other at a level far above that of other creatures. So, though some numbers are stacked against us, we've got some pretty signficant numbers of our own. The rate of advancement of bacteria probably hasn't changed much over time. They experiment (mutate) at about the same rate as always. Their ability to "imagine" (mutate) hasn't changed. But our rate of advancement is increasing, even though our reproduction cycle is still 20 years long. It's increasing because our tools, both for collaboration and exploration, are improving. Any one of us is limited in our ability to imagine by any number of factors, natural and nurtural. But, our ability to share ideas can remove barriers to, or spur imaginaton. It is not hard for you to imagine Russell's teapot, but it is for some. By sharing ideas, we benefit from Metcalf's Law. I share your sense of awe and wonder, and there was a time I'd have accepted a characterization of that as "spiritual", though certainly not religious. No more. I'm now happy to think of myself simply as... curious. ETA: Hidden in my response is a purposeful comingling of imagination with mutation. Nature is often credited with being imaginative. Why is that? Well, if you try enough random experiments and keep only those which work (natural selection), you can end up with something that appears planned. We've plenty of evidence to show that no planning was involved, but it takes a bit of imagination to accept the evidence. ;-).

Hi bateliii, Eloh Elliot has some nice base skins from which you can start. Asuka Martin did a lengthy tutorial for creating an SL face from an RL photograph. And Robin Wood has a nice set of avatar skinning templates. Have fun!

HI Cianni, This sounds like a graphics driver problem, as if the viewer no longer recognizes your graphics hardware and limits you to only the most basic settings. You could try re-installing/updating your graphics drivers, or doing a clean install of the viewer, in case it's improperly identifying your computer's graphics subsystem. Should you choose to do a clean re-install, take note of the precautions for saving chat logs if you want to preserve those. Good luck!